← Back to portfolio

Graphic Magazine: Review for FoRMATS

Published on

Graphic is a quarterly magazine from Korea featuring trends within the alternative graphic design community and focusing on a single theme per issue. In its 10th issue (published in 2009, but still relevant today), the magazine explores the process of self-publishing, from design to distribution, through over 90 different publications. Graphic is published in both English and Korean, and this bilingual component presents graphic design challenges that mirror the meta-design nature of the magazine itself. 

In Graphic: Self-Publishing, each spread documents a single publication and includes specs detailing its essential features. The magazine avoids classifying content and instead archives the publications in an arbitrary order. With binding techniques ranging from loose-leaf to perfect bound to hand-sewn and a diverse range of content to match, these publications are primarily bound together by their self-published format. They represent a form of media that seems to be on the decline but in reality, is only just being reinvented. A form of media that is becoming an exciting new outlet for creative and informative communication. The featured publications come up with a variety of creative solutions to the design, printing, and budget challenges inherent to independent publishing and distribution. Ultimately, Graphic celebrates the self-reflective quality of self-published printed matter.

This issue also includes inserts featuring independent bookstores from across the world that support this type of publication, functioning as a hyper-guide and excellent source of information on all aspects of the self-publishing community.





Originally published on FoRMATS Facebook page: February 10th, 2014